HAPPY AMERICA DAY! (at least that's how I think you pronounce it)

Anyway, I thank you for all the wonderful reviews, and to make up for the fact that the last chapter was so frikkin' short, I have tried to make this one a bit longer.

ENJOY!

Disclaimer: People... *sob* ...I'm not Rick. Because if I was, I'd be working on the HOUSE OF HADES right now, or on the fifth book of the series instead of FREAKING FANFICTION.

Piper

A few more days passed. Then those days turned into weeks, and those weeks ended up piling on top of the other, and before they knew it, Piper and Leo were celebrating their one-month anniversary of being at Camp Half-Blood.

Well, so far the 'quest' wasn't turning out so great. Nyssa and Drew fought all the time, and Piper had a feeling only two percent of their work had been actually been completed. Leo complained on how moody Nyssa was becoming, and Piper complained about Drew in general like she always had.

And Chime turned out to be pretty awesome. She had started flying a month before, and soon everyone in the Hephaestus and Aphrodite cabin knew her by name.

Piper reasoned she was getting better at this demigod stuff as well. Soon she was able to beat Leo at archery, even though he was still better than her in sword-fighting. One day, she had hit a twenty-eight out of thirty (in archery), and, sadly, the same day Leo beat her with a sword in less than twenty seconds.

"That was humiliating," commented Piper as they sat down on the side benches after the fight.

"Not for me," said Leo, grinning like crazy.

"It's fortunate for us that we're still 'newbies' and we don't take in too much attention," said Piper, taking a long drink of water.

"Not that new," said Leo. "Almost a month now."

A loud racket coming from not too far away interrupted their conversation. "Stupid Aphrodite brat," muttered Nyssa, storming past them.

"Selfish, dirty, forge-person!" Drew yelled back, shaking her fist at her like 'Curse You, Nyssa thedaughterofHephaestus!'.

"'Forge-person'," Leo repeated, laughing. "I'm sorry, but nothing can top that."

"I think we would do a lot better if we were the 'forge and dove'," commented Piper. "At least we'd get something done." She said nothing else for a moment, and then in two quick seconds she had unsheathed Katoptris and jumped up onto the bench they were sitting on with bent knees, pressing the tip of her dagger against Leo's throat.

"I win," she said tauntingly.

"I knew you'd do that," Leo said back, turning away from the blade as if it weren't even there.

"No, you didn't," argued Piper. "Don't be a sore loser and just admit that I won." She jumped down from the bench, placing her dagger on the bench next to her. "I've been perfecting that bench-jump all week," she announced proudly.

"Is that so?" asked Leo. "It can't be too hard."

"When you're wearing fifteen pounds of armour it is," she countered.

They argued a little longer on whether or not this was so. Finally, Leo tried the jump for himself and failed, knocking the bench over and throwing them both onto their backs.

"Told ya," said Piper, craning her neck so that she could see Leo.

"Congratulations," replied Leo, trying to sit up with his armour but failing. "You can jump over a bench." He struggled to get up a little more, but only succeeded in making himself look like a pathetic overturned bug. After retrieving her fallen over dagger, Piper got to her feet and extended an arm to help him up.

"I got this," he reassured, but it didn't take long for Piper to realize that he definitely did not. After several odd looks and a few minutes of squirming on the floor in vain, Leo finally took Piper's hand.

"Man, do they need to lighten up that armour," said Leo. He yawned, stretched, and checked an imaginary watch at the same time. "Well, it's time for Papa Leo to take his mid-day nap. See you at dinner."

"It's only four in the afternoon," Piper noticed. "Why are you going to bed now?"

"I will repeat," said Leo. "Mid-day nap. Why does everything have to be so complicated nowadays?"

Piper watched Leo walk back toward the cabins. She didn't follow. Instead, she went out to find Lacy.

Even though he said he would, Leo didn't show up for dinner. And when Piper asked the other Hephaestus campers, they told her that they hadn't seen Leo at their cabin, but one of the smaller kids—Harley?—said that Leo was at the forges. So after dinner, Piper headed over there.

"So tired, huh," she announced from the doorway. Leo hardly looked behind him. He was the only one at the forges—everyone else was getting ready for bed.

"Hey," he called.

Piper skipped between the worktables holding dangerous and complex looking machinery to the one Leo was working at. "Whatcha doin'?" she asked.

"What does it look like?" asked Leo, hardly looking up from his seat.

Piper looked down at all the wires and gears and batteries and other chips and bolts on the table. "I have absolutely no idea," she stated.

Leo sighed and pushed everything to the sides, leaning his elbows on the table and resting his head on top.

"Is something wrong?" she asked. Leo shook his head slightly, but she could tell it was a lie.

"Okay, what's up?" asked Piper again, pulling up a stool from another table and sitting down.

"You really want to know?" he asked.

"With a cherry on top," she replied.

"Are you sure you don't want something else?" asked Leo. "Like a taco or something? I could go get you a taco if you wanted one—"

"Absolutely positive," said Piper, clasping her hands out in front of her and placing them in her lap. She adopted a therapist-like voice. "Now, what's been bothering you?" she asked.

Leo grinned sheepishly, hesitated, then held up his index finger, looking at Piper as if to say Ta-da! See, nothing special. Now go away. Piper was about to ask what was so special about this when it lit on fire, illuminating the vast room they were sitting in.

Piper's hands flew to her face. She involuntarily threw herself backwards to get away, the only thing catching her fall being the worktable behind them. "Oh my God. Ss."

"This is why I ran away six times," Leo said with a sigh. "I grew too close to my foster family, and I couldn't repeat what happened with my mum." He paused, thinking about it. "Well, it was the reason I ran away from five of my foster homes. The fourth one was just cruel, man."

"Your mum…" Piper suddenly understood. She managed to sit back up with a bit of effort. "Your mum died in a fire," she remembered him telling her, oh so long ago. "And those bullies, at the Wilderness School. One of them said that you had burned him. And Dylan, that whirlwind guy—he called you a fire user."

Leo nodded. "Exactly seven years ago, I killed my mother with this… demigod thing. None of my siblings have it. It's just me." He sighed. "I don't know if you want to be friends anymore," he said, pulling his finger away, its light disappearing. "You can call me a freak now. A mutant, a devil, a crazy Firebender… I've heard them all. It doesn't matter to me if I hear one more."

Piper just shook her head, unsure of what to say. "No," she decided. "All those people—they're wrong." Her voice turned uneasy all of a sudden. "But, uh, just for the record… not that I'm, uh, scared or anything, but, em… how potentially dangerous is this fire-magic you have?"

Leo looked up and grinned. "Very dangerous," he laughed. "In fact, if this room were to catch fire right now, it'd probably be safer to jump into the monster-infested forest than to stay here." He lit his finger up again, drawing himself closer to the walls.

"No!" Piper shrieked, then laughed when Leo didn't actually do it. "Well, I guess that since we're telling secrets now," she said, "I have something to say as well. Of course, it isn't that impressive as having fire powers—"

"Nothing is," interrupted Leo with a grin.

"—but, I thought you should still get to know anyway," continued Piper as if Leo hadn't said anything. She took in a deep breath. "Do you remember the day we met, and Coach Hedge corrected our names? Like, our full names?"

"Yeah," said Leo.

"And, well, he said my last name was McLean?" she continued.

"Like the movie star, yeah."

"Well, that movie star is my dad."

Leo sat up straighter. "You're not serious?" he demanded.

"Well," continued Piper with a shy grin, "the only reason I wanted a BMW in the first place was to gain attention from my dad. He's always so busy, and never has time for me. Or almost never does."

"Wow," said Leo. "You were wrong. That is impressive."

"Just, please, don't treat me like I'm some princess now," she said. "Treat me how you used to treat me. I hate it when people do that once they know who my dad is. It's, like, so annoying!"

"Okay," Leo said simply. "Still, a movie star's daughter is pretty… inspiring."

"I think that was the first time I've heard you say that word," Piper noticed.

"I think that was the first time I ever said that word in my life," Leo said. "Anyway, do you think they still have tacos from dinner?"

"Of course they would, the plates are— Oh, right, you didn't have dinner," said Piper. She stood up. "Well, let's see what we can conjure up."

GASP! Leo is a fire user! Who knew?

NOW... reviews!

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HaileeOfHermes0330: Prophecies aren't supposed to make sense. But if you got it, good for you!

Zoe Milex: I'm sorry, but as a straight A student I have to correct you. YES, Canada day is the best day on Canadian history, but technically we never won 1812. In fact, the war was British vs. America, British fighting on Canadian ground because technically Canada wasn't a free country yet. But those haters who came stommpin' on our land never got it, so I guess in theory we won... (high-five!)

elliefs: Canada Day is like America Day for Canadians.

slenderniece: Doesn't everyone want Chime and cookies? (::) (::)

Just another: Thank you for also reviewing every chapter! You get cookies! (::) (::) (::)

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Now review!